


The Tree de L'amour

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: One Shot, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-12-27
Updated: 2006-12-27
Packaged: 2019-01-19 11:10:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12409203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: "This is Hogwarts' most famous linear block of wood. It is a tree that has been visited over the years by every devout teenage lover and lust-blinded witch and wizard this school has seen. This, Ms. Evans is the tree de l'amour."





	The Tree de L'amour

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

                                     **_The Tree de L’amour_**

People seem to forget how painful the cold is. I’m talking the iced over sickle streams of cold that make your eyes bleed with tears and your face splotched over in red. It’s the frigid wetness of Winter, of Vitamin D deficiency and tanless skin. It’s the cold that will just rip you to shreds. 

It was torrential outside. Outpours of frost congealed in the air, swirling in it. I didn't care though because I had to show her, I just had to. Seven o'clock I headed over to her dorm, knocked the beat of an old Pink Floyd song and announced my presence. "The honorable James Potter has appeared here at this fine, woody door to call on Ms. Lily Evans." I figured specifics were best. I couldn't risk the image of Lily or Terra standing the doorway with a loaded .38 or a can of mace. I would never survive it.

"Go away potter." I couldn’t tell whose voice it was, which upset me to say the least. It sounded tough as leather, smooth as tin. It could be anyone, or it could be no one at all. 

I pulled at the door. My fingers were still stiff from numbness. "Lily would you please just open the door. I’m fucking freezing and I just spent an hour outside in the 50-below-zero hellhole so please open the goddamn door."

Light poked through "When you put it that way, how can I resist".

"Compelling, wasn’t it?"

"I’d say more pathetic, but sure, it’s your world up there Potter". She pressed the heat of her finger against my temple and not gingerly either. Either way the touch melted through me like a light-wave; gamma particles soaring through my skin, waking the life beyond all that ice.

"I have to show you something."

"Look, I don’t want to see your dick again, one time is enough so just keep it in your pants, capeshe."

"But-"

"I don’t care if you were drunk off your ass, it was still vile."

"Hey!"

"Pecker problems are fixable really, find yourself a good spell and that thing will perk right up."

"No you tart, I don’t want expose my manhood-"

"Boyhood, more accurately."

"I want to show you something that I did."

"Is that supposed to comfort me?"

"Now, go grab a jacket, two even. Pull on some gloves, some big knickers and a couple of hats for good measure."

"Excuse me?"

"Chop chop, no time to waste dear."

"What on earth are you planning to do with-"

"Gloves. Hats. Knickers. Go."

"I will not put _on_ anything."

"Oh, but you put _out_ so easily."

"POTTER! I AM NOT PUTTING ON ANY STINKING SWEATERS OR SOCKS SO THAT YOU CAN KINDNAP ME AND TAKE ME TO THE NORTH POLE TO BE RAPED AND DEFILED."

"If you don’t want to put anything on, you are welcome to take some things off. Either way darling."

I could hear the putrid lilt of Terra cutting its way across the room "I told you he was a future sex offender Lily, I’m glad you have finally accepted that."

"Oh Terra, I can smell your unwashed body odor and dirty crevices all the way over here, you really should bathe more often."

"Thanks for the advice, maybe you should stop raping little children and beating off to bloody underwear, it does the soul good."

"Lily, come on I’m feeling my insides closing in, I’ve probably contracted multiple STD’s from such close, ungodly contact with she-slut so will you please get dressed so we can go on our merry way."

"No."

"I will," I paused "show you my bare naked body and allow you to do with it what you please."

Blink.

"I’ll, I’ll. Hmm... I’ll buy you a new necklace, something shiny."

"Potter."

"Dear god Lily, I’ll do your homework for a month and give you all my notes for the rest of the year."

She blinked furiously, like the wings of a butterfly rapping against the air. She glanced over at Terra who shrugged. "Done."

Exactly thirteen minuets later we were trudging through the darkness, leaning against the wind and rubbing at the sting of air in our eyes and along our jawlines. "This better be the eighth fucking wonder of the world."

"That’s butterbeer my love."

We walked for I don’t even know how long, edging the wind and stroking the tips of our fingers along our faces to make sure they were still there. We walked for what seemed like hours in something that felt very much like silence but colder and much more pleasant. In the dark of the skylights I noticed the fat, curl-woven silhouette that I had visited only a few short hours ago. 

"We," I bent forward to touch my toes and yawn at the air "have arrived."

"Mmm, tree. Very impressive."

"This is Hogwarts’ most famous linear block of wood. It is a tree that has been visited over the years by every devout teenage-lover and lust-blinded witch and wizard this school has seen. This, Ms. Evans, is the tree de l’amour."

"Wha… I mean, that actually exists?"

"Oh yes, oh yes yes yes yes yes. I spent hours out here looking for it. All the trees look the same but when I saw this, I just knew"

Scribbled all along the branches was wrinkled names, hundreds of thousands of names paired into two’s and circled, inked, emerging through uneven hearts. The tall, pillowy tree was encased by those names, dripping with them to the edge of the sky.

I pulled her glove-sealed hand inside my own, feeling nothing but the mix of cloth, and walked to the dead center. I followed the thick slits of bark to somewhere near to the ground, aligned perfectly with my naval. "Here." I whispered "It’s you and me. Lily I don’t care if Terra hates me or if you think that I’m just a big phony, all I care is that you see this. I mean, really see this." She ran her fingers along the deep gashes, fresh from that evening.

"You spelled my name wrong"

"What!? No, no I didn’t L-I-L-Y E-V-A-N-S; I have known that name since first year. It’s practically encoded in my DNA."

"I was just testing you." She smiled, softer than usual. I knew that she liked me back then, maybe she even loved me but I just didn’t know it. When we were alone, when we were together her voice always became as thin as thread and she wouldn’t yell at me when I touched her cheek or brushed my fingers through her hair.

We stood there for a long time, bodies curved in, facing each other slightly in that way that teenagers often do. We remained silent for so long just watching those vows planted on the forever-tree. I think we both knew that it was the beginning of something because those names, they weren’t accidental. 

Before I knew it I was kneeling in front of her, hunched on both knees. "Lily Evans, will you go out with me?" 

"James… I." I ripped her gloves off and pressed my bare lips against her skin. I kissed her hand over and over hoping that maybe if I did it long enough I would leave a dent. I stamped my mouth all along her wrist and her fingers, kissing each one individually, running them along my cheek. "All my friends hate you."

"Terra hates me."

"All my friends hate you James, and you know that."

"So what! Why does that matter?"

"It matters to me James."

"It shouldn’t though." I stood up and pulled her waist into mine, smiling as the wind melted between us. Her arms were pulled around my shoulders, her head resting near my ear. She looked like she might cry.

"Lily it’s written in the stars and all along our skin." I laced my fingers in hers and kissed the clump, the tangle of nails and skin and souls. "We fit perfectly, we just. Lily we fit."

"Stop James, please don’t do this. I just, I can’t right now. I can’t afford to mess up."

"You won’t mess up."

"We don’t know anything about each other, we don’t know how our minds work or if we can even stand each other for more than ten minutes."

"I know everything about you Lily, more than I know about anything else. And so do you, you just don’t want to admit it."

"Why are you so sure that this isn’t a mistake, that we would be happy together?"

"Its everywhere Lily, it’s a prophecy. It’s in the black of night-time and the bell of your hair. It’s written right here on this tree for everyone to see. Look at that ‘Lily Evans and James Potter’ scribed right into that tree, completely irreversible."

"James, that isn’t destiny. You wrote that on the tree, not some divine force."

My words came out slow. "Exactly." I could see her crying, heavy-lidded drops skimming her face, the bones of her body quaking. I put my hands on her chin and pulled her mouth to mine, matching our gums. We peeled apart, our bodies still intertwined underneath the cyclones of wind and the dense, black-rimmed skies. She was nodding underneath all those tears; nodding over and over again with her eyes drifting between mine and the wall of the tree. She was nodding through sleepless dreams, vision coated in heartbeats and woe. She was nodding and still crying with the iced beauty I had always known. Suddenly the words engraved in that tree became nothing more than the truth. 


End file.
